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Topic: New queen (Read 1021 times)

I got a new queen today my hive has been without its two former queens for and 27 hrs. I found 3 queen cells that I smashed. Anyway my real question is if anyone can tell from the picture if I can just release the queen or if they look like they want to kill her. To me it looks like they are trying to feed her.

Wait a minimum of 3 days, and up to 7 days before releasing her. They will kill her if released too soon. The house bees will feed her, but the foragers will kill her at this time.

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

My case is similar. I have a queen less hive for about two weeks now from a cut out. The capped brood has almost all hatched out. I introduced a queen today. An they balled the queen cage but others are fanning around the area. It's the fanning normal. I have not released her the candy stopper is still in place I want to combine this hive with two other hive that went queen less also with a newspaper combination aftere they accept this queen. The idea behind the combination is to keep numbers high as the new queen lays so they go into winter strong with #s and food.

That is why many beeks remove the attendants when installing a new queen. They are not needed once she is installed. The house bees will attend to her.Think about "banking queens".Direct release her into a strange hive and she will be killed immediately most times.

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

Yes, lone, but direct release is as stated, just pull the other cork and let her go. Removing the cork and allowing them to remove the candy is called delayed release.

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

That is why many beeks remove the attendants when installing a new queen. They are not needed once she is installed. The house bees will attend to her.Think about "banking queens".Direct release her into a strange hive and she will be killed immediately most times.

The intresting part was the foragers do the killing and not the nurse bees. Never had heard that stated that way before.

SC, that is my assumption, since you can put 20 caged queens in a hive above the excluder and they will be fed and tended for weeks. It's called banking queens. How else would you explain it?

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

SC, that is my assumption, since you can put 20 caged queens in a hive above the excluder and they will be fed and tended for weeks. It's called banking queens. How else would you explain it?

How do you over winter those queens?

You don't - after being caged a while their ovaries shrink (is that correct term) and they are no longer viable as egg layers. That is why a caged queen gets larger when she begins to lay. That is why when you buy queens from a producer there may be problems from banking time.

Palouse, I said weeks, not months or years. You don't over winter them that way. You can place them there until you sell them, then just pull and ship. Or hold them that way if the weather is bad and you cannot make up nucs for a week or two.

Search "banking queens".

Logged

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

SC, that is my assumption, since you can put 20 caged queens in a hive above the excluder and they will be fed and tended for weeks. It's called banking queens. How else would you explain it?

How do you over winter those queens?

You don't - after being caged a while their ovaries shrink (is that correct term) and they are no longer viable as egg layers. That is why a caged queen gets larger when she begins to lay. That is why when you buy queens from a producer there may be problems from banking time.

Palouse, I said weeks, not months or years. You don't over winter them that way. You can place them there until you sell them, then just pull and ship. Or hold them that way if the weather is bad and you cannot make up nucs for a week or two.

Search "banking queens".

Thanks to you both.

I didn't catch the "weeks" in that context, and the search pulled up a lot, so I've got some reading to do.